Happy Halloween!!! I thought I’d end the week, and my short miniseries on well constructed replicas, with a look at an excellent fan made replica weapon sent in by reader Hector E. None other than Zar’roc from the book turned movie, Eragon:

Zar'roc

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Some of you may remember a prior post, many moons ago on another version of Zar’roc, which had a beautiful blade, but a hilt that could, at best, be described as “toylike”. Hector was kind enough to point me to a site sporting a much more accurate, custom made version.

Zar'roc

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As you can see, this ain’t no kids toy. In fact, this replica has been approved by Christopher Paolini, the author of the book Eragon, upon which the movie is based. And I can see why.

Zar'roc - Hilt Side

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If you are a fan of the book, you will notice that, in contrast to the other Zar’roc replica, this one actually has a red pommel, instead of the blue one, which, while movie accurate, is not at all true to the book.

Ok, so it’s not quite a ruby, but at the very least it is red, instead of a blue sapphire, which is a significant improvement over the movie replica. I really don’t see why the movie makers decided to take that particular kind or artistic liberty with the design, as it seems to be a trivial and unnecessary change, but I’m not a movie maker either…

Zar'roc - Red Ruby Pommel

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But there are other changes. In the book, not only did Zar’roc carry a large, tear shaped red ruby in it’s pommel, but it also sported a silver wire wrapped grip. The movie version is wrapped in black leather. The Silver wire grip is yet another feature faithfully reproduced in this replica.

Down to the guard, oh, my… what a guard it is! A beautiful organic sliver of steel tipped with a pair of downward pointing, claw like ends. Quite the menacing piece of steel.

Zar'roc - Hilt

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And then we come to the glorious red blade. Almost a candy apple red, with a short inverted spade shaped ricasso, that flows into a beautiful slim, straight, double edged sword, it’s quite the looker.

Zar'roc - Ricasso

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All of this crimson steel, eventually angles it’s way inwards to a rather keen looking, narrow wedge shaped point, at the business end of the weapon. And boy does it mean business:

Zar'roc - Crimson Sword Point

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Now this is what I call a replica. Making the vision of the original artist become reality. Absolutely all kinds of sweetness incarnate. In fact, this sword almost looks good enough to eat…

I really didn’t like the hilt on the other Zar’roc. Too much going on, dragons heads, horns, etc. And the gem on the pommel was entirely too large, not to mention being the wrong color.

The hilt on this isn’t perfect either, but it’s not as bad as it looks. I had to blow up the pics to figure out what was bad craftsmanship and what was just bad photography. Whoever took the pictures did not do the best job. The angles are bad, the lighting is bad, and there are what I think are fingerprints or reflections of something on the guard, which really doesn’t do it any justice.

In reality, the blade and hilt are actually well done for a hand made sword. The wire wrap could be just a tad tighter, and the red marble, that is supposed to be ruby, was perhaps not the best choice, as was the Jughead’s hat shape, and color of gold collar just beneath it. But those two things are really the only things I could find any major fault with.

If I could have the perfect Zar’roc, it would have either of these blades with full tang, mated to this guard, this grip (with a nice, tight silver wire wrap) capped with a very short cylindrical silver sleeve in which a much smaller, faceted (not smooth) teardrop ruby would be set. Maybe framed in silver…

I realy dont care if it would hurt it looks like a sword wille wonka would have in his green room (the one with the choclate river=) and it is one of the most sweetest (and i mean that bye taste and looks) looking swards i’ve seen ……manifoco

i actually agree with beanjavert, i like the last one better, but the handle looks toylike because of the sheen, if it was leather with the same design it would look perfect, real-like. The guard and pommel on the last one look very detailed and the blade looks more hardcore, i guess i just like rough stuff tou.

I loved the books and the movies and it is really cool to see a fan of it to make such a perfect replica of this sword and if anyone finds a cool one online for a good price please please send a email with the link to the website with the sword.